Mumbai, June 20 (Inditop.com) A Maharashtra court Saturday granted judicial custody till July 4 to suspended NCP MP Padamsingh Patil for his alleged involvement in the 2006 murder of his cousin and Congress leader Pavan Raje Nimbalkar.
Patil’s custody with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) ended Saturday and he was brought before the Panvel magistrate court in Navi Mumbai in the afternoon.
Patil, who was elected from Maharashtra’s Osmanabad Lok Sabha constituency last month, was arrested June 7 and charged with the murder and conspiracy to kill Nimbalkar and his driver Samad Qazi.
According to senior public prosecutor Ejaz Khan, Padamsingh Patil has been charged under the Indian Penal Code’s sections 302 and 120-B, dealing with murder and criminal conspiracy respectively.
Challenging the CBI plea for further custody, Patil’s lawyer alleged that he was being framed in the murder case by the investigative agency.
In a related development, the CBI raided two flats owned by Patil in south Mumbai and recovered a large cache of arms, ammunition, sophisticated walkie-talkie sets, computers and discs, swords and unaccounted cash Rs.726,000.
Nimbalkar was shot dead by two gunmen at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai July 3, 2006, after he was lured there under the pretext of striking a business deal.
Shooter Dineshram M. Tiwari, 37, and his supervisor Parasmal T. Jain, 47, were arrested by the CBI May 25 for killing Nimbalkar and Qazi.
In their confession recorded before a magistrate, Jain and Tiwari also made the sensational disclosure of receiving a Rs. 2.5 million contract to eliminate renowned social and anti-corruption crusader, Anna Hazare, a Magsaysay Award winner.
The contract to kill Nimbalkar and Hazare was given by a Latur businessman, Mohan Shukla and a municipal corporator from Dombivli (suburb of Thane) Satish Mandade, who are also in CBI custody. However, they claimed that Jain and Tiwari refused to kill Hazare.
